New York, USA – October 28, 2010 – The Nielsen Company B.V., a leading global information and measurement company, today announced its financial results for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2010.
Reported revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2010 were $1,289 million, an increase of 5% over reported revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2009 of $1,227 million. Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations*, revenues for the three months increased 7%.
Reported operating income for the three months ended September 30, 2010 was $201 million compared to an operating loss of $326 million for the three months ended September 30, 2009. The 2010 results included $11 million of charges relating to restructuring costs. The 2009 results included $524 million of charges relating to the September 2009 impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets as well as restructuring. Adjusting for these items and excluding the impact of currency fluctuations*, operating income increased 10%.
Reported revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2010 were $3,755 million, an increase of 7% over reported revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 of $3,511 million. Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations*, revenues for the nine months increased 6%.
Reported operating income for the nine months ended September 30, 2010 was $515 million compared to an operating loss of $42 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2009. The 2010 results included $33 million of charges relating to restructuring costs. The 2009 results included $533 million of charges relating to the September 2009 impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets as well as restructuring. Adjusting for these items, operating income, on a constant currency basis*, increased 10%.
Covenant earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and other adjustments permitted under our senior secured credit facilities (“Covenant EBITDA”) was $1,415 million for the twelve months ended September 30, 2010. Covenant EBITDA is a non – GAAP measure. See “Covenant EBITDA” below for a reconciliation of Income from continuing operations of $191 million for the twelve months ended September 30, 2010 to Covenant EBITDA.
As of September 30, 2010, total debt was $8,571 million, and cash balances were $420 million. Capital expenditures were $226 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2010, compared with $204 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2009.
Conference Call and Webcast
The Nielsen Company will hold an earnings conference call, hosted by The Nielsen Company’s Chief Financial Officer Brian J. West, at 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (ET) on October 28, 2010. The call will be audio-webcast live at
https://en-us.nielsen.com/content/nielsen/en_us/about/investor_relations.html and an archive will be available on the website after the call. In addition, a link to the company’s quarterly financial report on Form 10-Q has been posted at https://en-us.nielsen.com/content/nielsen/en_us/about/investor_relations.html.
Forward-looking Statements
This news release includes information that could constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as ‘expect’, ‘should’, ‘could’, ‘shall’ and similar expressions. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results and events could differ materially from what presently is expected. Factors leading thereto may include without limitations general economic conditions, conditions in the markets Nielsen is engaged in, behavior of customers, suppliers and competitors, technological developments, as well as legal and regulatory rules affecting Nielsen’s business. This list of factors is not intended to be exhaustive. We assume no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking statement made by us or on our behalf as a result of new information, future events, or other factors.
NOTE: Additional detail regarding results (tables, etc.), can be found in the PDF download version of this release.
* We evaluate our results of operations on both an as reported and a constant currency basis. The constant currency presentation, which is a non-GAAP measure, excludes the impact of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. We believe providing constant currency information provides valuable supplemental information regarding our results of operations, consistent with how we evaluate our performance. We calculate constant currency percentages by converting our prior-period local currency financial results using the current period exchange rates and comparing these adjusted amounts to our current period reported results.
